Villainess Review: Nancy (A Mother Knows Worst)

I remember the very day I watched this film on Lifetime, and I'm still amazed by the twists and turns that I saw that evening. A Mother Knows Worst (also known as Broken Cradle and A Deadly Lullaby) began with two couples set to welcome children: Olivia and Harry Davis, and their friends, Brooke and Glen Wilson. The Davises welcomed their child, a girl, which was handed to head nurse Nancy, only for the couple to receive the tragic news that their newborn suddenly passed on. The Wilsons also had a daughter of their own, which they named Sienna, and life afterwards saw Olivia cope with losing her baby, with Nancy serving as Olivia's means of emotional support.

Brooke and Glen are enjoying being parents, but odd occurrences start happening. Glen receives threatening messages, the Wilsons (especially baby Sienna) are being stalked, but the most diabolical impact comes when the couple leave Sienna in the care of Janice, a local sitter. The evening would see a hooded figure sneak into the Wilson household and enter Sienna's room, with the baby's cries being heard by Janice. Janice enters Sienna's room, only to be attacked by the figure, who later drowns Janice in the pool right before the Wilsons return home.

Glen and Harry's workplace is hit with the news that $50,000 of their company's money had been embezzled, and as for Olivia, she finds herself spending a lot of time with Brooke and Sienna. She later learns that Glen plans on moving his family to England, but later on, that plan is kiboshed, as Glen is hit with accusations of sexual harassment. Olivia is suddenly hit with a restraining order, as she faced accusations of filing the report, stalking the Wilsons, and even murdering Janice, all claims denied by Olivia.

Glen placed a guard outside the house, but he ends up murdered by the actual culprit, which is followed by Glen firing his gun. Olivia couldn't have been in the area, as she wasn't by the Wilsons' house when the attack happened. The Davises head to Nancy's house, but only find her mother, Holly, who revealed that Nancy went on vacation and came into some money: $50,000. That exact amount leads the couple to sense that Nancy's connected to the embezzled money, and they later visit Glen, who holds them at gunpoint and places them inside the basement. While imprisoned, Olivia makes a grisly discovery: a body is inside, and it happens to be Nancy. The couple escape and fight with Glen, whose firing of the gun wakes up Brooke. Olivia reveals that Nancy switched their babies under Glen's order, and while Glen denies it, Brooke actually believes the claim, as she stated that she noticed a lack of connection between herself and Sienna.

So Glen finally decided to confess everything; they had tried many times to have children but failed, and their latest pregnancy revealed that Brooke's baby died while Olivia's survived. Nancy gave the bad news to Glen, and later offered to switch the babies' ID cards in exchange for a $50,000 payout, as Nancy needed the money to take care of her sick mother. The switch happens, but afterwards, Nancy made more attempts to extort money from Glen, and turned villainous when she was denied. She tried to abduct Sienna while Brooke was shopping (doing so for ransom), and made another attempt on that aforementioned evening, which ended with Nancy drowning Janice when she was caught. The madwoman also made the sexual harassment claim after finding out about Glen's plan to leave the country, and it was Nancy who attacked and killed the guard. Glen spotted Nancy and killed her to tie up a loose end, and in a struggle with Brooke over the gun (following the confession), Glen ended up shot to death, while the Davises received their baby daughter back.

A Mother Knows Worst aired on Lifetime on March 28, 2020, and featured Heather Ankeny as nurse-turned-hidden villainess Nancy. I remember being very surprised by Nancy's unveiling as a villainess in that film, as she didn't have that much screen time. I know the film was teasing Olivia as a baby-crazed madwoman, but it was painfully obvious that Olivia was a red herring. Even so, Nancy being evil and deranged was a nice surprise for this fan of villainesses, and Nancy was quite maniacal in her quest to get back at Glen. Ankeny's performance was amazing in all regards; she acted out Nancy's kindness to Olivia very well, and the flashback scene where Nancy unveils her sinister personality to Glen was wonderfully performed by Ankeny.

Heather Ankeny has appeared in episodes of Rizzoli & Isles, Criminal Minds, and Supah Ninjas, and regarding her appearance in A Mother Knows Worst, it's her third in a Lifetime film. According to her IMDB page, Ankeny's appearance in the film is her most recent acting role (to date).

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Check out Nancy's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!